Poe Poetry

Last Chirstmas I got an anthology of Edgar Allan Poe.



I was reading some poems of his, just flipping through the poetry section in the thick, 842-paged book, when I came accross one entitled "Dream-Land" on page 794. I was interested immediately in this poem, because I've been having a lot of weird dreams lately. I suppose Freud would be a better source to read about that (yes, I do own his dream interpretation book. It's in my "To-Read" stack.), but I think poetry can give us a view that is, while less scientific, more accurate. Anyway, I really enjoyed the poem. It spent a lot of time talking about setting:

"Mountains toppling evermore
Into seas without a shore;
Seas that restlessly aspire,
Surging, unto skies of fire;
Lakes that endlessly outspread
Their lone waters--lone and dead,--
Their still waters--still and chilly
With the snows of the lolling lily."

It created a dreadful, lonely, sometimes frightening place that was somehow almost peaceful. It captured what a dream feels like, at least to me. I mean, bad things may happen in a dream, but my reactions in that dream are so nominal, very passive, that it almost just seems calmly strange. I think the poem captures that well. Furthermore, can't you just picture this land of crumbling moutains and endless lakes and burning skies?

It also brought up the dead by saying:

"There the traveler meets aghast
Sheeted Memories of the Past--
Shrouded forms that start and sigh
As they pass the wanderer by--
White-robed forms of friends long given,
In agony, to the Earth--and Heaven."

If you've ever dreamed of a dead loved one, that's how it feels: obscure, scary, but calm. It's also interesting to pick out just the capitalized words: There Sheeted Memories Past Shrouded As White In Earth Heaven. Creepy but interesting, no?

Anyway, I loved this poem and all of the Poe poems I've read and would recomend them to anyone. Many of them aren't as...insane as his short stories, though they can be somewhat dark. One last connection: the lines "Seas that restlessly aspire, Surging unto skies of fire;" reminded me of one of my favorite songs "Lake of Fire" by The Meat Puppets (also, covered by Nirvana).

...Scattered

To be completely honest, I haven't done much reading this week. I've been very, very busy. I read a little from The Year of Living Biblically by: A.J. Jacobs, but I really don't want to write another blog about that book since it would be my third. I mean, how many times can you say you like a book before you've even finished it?

At my speech meet last weekend, I read an adorable speech about a dim-witted dog and a pompous cat who "plot" to get rid of their new housemate "Fluffy." It mad me laugh with lines like:
Cat: Listen to me, Roofus! Our lives have been irreversably damaged! Now, what can we do to fix it?
Dog: Um...(pause)...let me think. Well, if it's been irreversably damaged, doesn't that mean we can't do anything?

It was cute, even if its literary merit wasn't particularly high.

Speaking of low literary merit, I (by definition) read a lot of text messages this week. I don't know if the poorly punctuated, melodramatic, angst-filled stories really count toward independent reading, though.

Oh, yesterday I read the unpublished book/really long short story my friend is writing. Well, I read 5 pages of it. It was great, funny and sad all at the same time, which makes sense considering it was about a drunk half-demon (which I think means half cat) girl hitting on the brother (I think) of her dead boyfriend. The story is really hard to follow (because I've only read bits and pieces of it in the wrong order), but what I have read has been elequent and captures well the mood of the setting.

I read my math book. It was rather dry, if you ask me.

I also read two fitness articles for my make-up work for gym. I found out that a University of Washington study concluded that even if you only lift a 20 pound weight 3-6 times, your sleeping metabolic rate increases 8%. Other than that, the articles were about as much fun as gym itself.

I read the nutrition facts of my Sobe Lizard Lava. 75 grams of sugar in one bottle!! That is absolutely ridiculous but delicious.

I read my ticket to a concert that was so loud the bass reverberated (that's a vocab. word) in my chest and made my pant legs vibrate like a Brittany's Boston Terrier, Mojo.

I guess, in retrospect, I read a lot. Well, maybe not, but I tried. I'm hoping to finish The Year of Living Biblically by next week, so it should be a bit less...scattered.

Feed

I finished reading the book Feed by M.T. Anderson last night. I really, really liked it. In the beginning, it was kind of hard to follow, because Anderson used a lot of slang words of his creation as well as technology that doesn't exist yet. Also, it was written in first person, and the main character's thoughts didn't yet have the maturity level that he had gained by the end. However, by the end of this book I was in tears.



Anderson builds you into a world that is vastly more advanced, but that has some major problems. He emphasizes the problems of the main character, while continually but subtly reminding you of just how messed up the world had become. He critiques modern society's flaws figuratively as he critiques the fantasy future. One of his characters, who is viewed by the protagonist as a tad crazy, speaks in long sectences with a large vocabulary, because he feels that through advancing slang and standard American laziness, the English language had lost much of its beauty.

Anderson also criticizes modern American corporations and their contributions to pollution. He creates a world controlled by companies that are very literally destroying the Earth (ahem, global warming much?). My republican father would say that Anderson is simply another liberal trying to cram global warming in wherever he can, but regardless of whether you believe in global warming or not, there are major pollution problems on the planet today.

Anderson also does a fantastic job of showing how one copes when faced with a difficult situation. He does not shy away from the truth. The main character does not always do the noble thing-he runs away, avoids the problem-but that is what really happens to people. People are not always brave, ecspecially under pressure, and we tend to justify our actions. Anderson shows the character's justifications and the character's guilt elequently, without ever saying, "I feel guilty."

In the end, Feed left me with a powerful sense of the characters' feelings, as well as a disturbing and very possible fortelling of the future. I enjoyed reading Feed and sing praise to M.T. Anderson's work.

PS. Please forgive any spelling errors. I have a trip I need to pack for and it's getting late, so I don't really have the time to check spelling. I tried my best, however, to write a well-written review, but I'm terrible at spelling. Thanks!

The Year of Living Biblically

I've been so busy lately, I've hardly had time to read. When I have a minute, though, I pick up my non-fiction book this quarter, The Year of Living Biblically by: A.J. Jacobs. I really like this book for a number of reasons. I like the author. He has a great sense of humor, which I appreciate, considering the content. Jacobs can make "bible talk" over dinner with a Jahovah's witness funny. However, his humor and jokes are very respectful. He understands that the bible is an important book to a lot of people, that people have died because of their beliefs, and the jokes are respectful.

Past the jokes, though, there are many deep revelations. This book really makes you think. On any given page, you can find a message from the bible or one in Jacobs' discoveries that makes you rethink something you do everyday. Personally, I'm not very religious. It just doesn't suit me, but The Year of Living Biblically has raised questions for me about how much we really know. One thing that was written really stuck in my mind.

Near the beginning of the book, Jacobs tackled the rules that perplexed him most. One of those rules was that you should not wear clothes with mixed fibers. To make sure his clothes were kosher, he called a man referred to as Mr. Berkowitz, whose profession is to check that clothing is made of all one fiber. Jacobs and Berkowitz begin to discuss some of the rules in the bible, and, when Jacobs asks "Why?" Berkowitz replies:

This is a law that God gave us. We have to trust Him. He is all-powerful. We're like children. Sometimes parents have laws that children don't understand. Like when you tell a child not to touch fire, he doesn't understand why, but it is good for him.

I think Mr. Berkowitz's trust in the bible is astonishing. His faith, his belief without proof, is powerful and beyond anything I feel. I can relate to Jacobs' feeling about religion and am excited to finish this book and learn his revelations.